Food and Nutrition Insecurity in Africa: The Primary Drivers and Sustainable Strategies to Improve the Current Status

ABSTRACT

Africa ranks second in the number of undernourished people globally and has the highest prevalence of food insecurity, twice the world's average. The continent could not meet the past Millennium Development Goals and targets for 2015, and the current projection shows that Africa is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger by 2030. Prospects for achieving these goals are dismal because of inherent primary drivers of food insecurity in each African region. This chapter identifies the primary drivers of food and nutrition insecurity in Africa and suggests strategies to attenuate its effect. Climate shocks (drought and flood) and insecurity are the primary agents driving food insecurity in Western, Central, and Southern Africa. Migratory pests (desert locusts) are a big challenge in Eastern and Southern Africa that have destroyed thousands of farmlands, while dependence on food subsidies, climate change, and political instability are the primary drivers of food insecurity in North Africa. In summary, the prevalence of food insecurity in Africa differs owing to the influence of food insecurity drivers in each region. Consequently, the COVID-19 widespread is expected to exacerbate Africa's current food insecurity. Sustainable strategies such as investing in the agricultural system through sustainable policies;reducing food prices;preventing localized desert locust outbreaks from attaining plague proportions and counterinsurgency;managing climate;and investing in food assistance in severe, catastrophic food insecurity that best fits each region would play a key role in mitigating food and nutrition insecurity in Africa. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.